Astrium’s satellites reap first fruits in Canada
13 March 2012
- PixAgri is a satellite imaging service for crop management, used for the first time in Canada
- For more than six months, Astrium has been helping 200 Canadian cereal producers and market gardeners to manage their crops by using satellite imagery
- PixAgri is a satellite based service that can be adapted to any production conditions worldwide
Astrium Services’ PixAgri satellite imaging service for crop management has just successfully completed its first agricultural campaign for “La Coop fédérée”, the largest agrifood business in Quebec, Canada.
PixAgri has been developed by Astrium Services to help farmers optimize the management and yield of their crops. Working from satellite images, the geo-experts from Astrium in Toulouse provide Canadian producers with information that can detect crop anomalies including drainage faults, excessive leaf growth or seeding problems, in order to improve the quality of their crops and their yield. The system offers a capability to manage farmland thousands acres wide.
Astrium was awarded this contract in June 2011, for the program that ran from July until August 2011. Two sets of satellite images were recorded of specific plots of land, enabling a comparison between the two images and the vegetation development maps were sent to the Canadian farmers. It enabled around 200 producers of maize, soy and market garden crops, covering more than 70,000 hectares to make decisions on crop cultivation. This campaign follows an evaluation phase requested by La Coop fédérée in 2008.
After 10 years’ of success of the French programme “Farmstar”, this first campaign outside Europe demonstrates Astrium’s ability to develop products that can be adapted to suit any production conditions anywhere in the world.
Astrium has also conducted other experimental programs in South Africa and the United States.
About Astrium
Astrium is the number one company in Europe for space technologies and the third in the world. In 2011, Astrium had a turnover close to €5 billion and 18,000 employees worldwide, mainly in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands.
Astrium is the sole European company that covers the whole range of civil and defence space systems and services.
Its three business units are: Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure; Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment; Astrium Services for comprehensive fixed and mobile end-to-end solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, high security and broadcast satellite communications equipment and systems, and bespoke geo-information services, worldwide.
Astrium is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2011, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of € 49.1 billion and employed a workforce of over 133,000.
About La Coop fédérée
The La Coop fédérée network is made up of 100 affiliated cooperatives, and owned by 62,000 members as of today. La Coop fédérée and its affiliated cooperatives employ over 16,000 people and generate a turnover of more than $6 billion.
Press contacts:
Grégory Gavroy
Media Relations France
Astrium
Tel.: +33 1.77 75 80 32
Fax: +33 1.77 75 80 88
Ralph Heinrich
Media Relations Germany
Astrium Germany
Tel.: +49 89 60 73 39 71
Fax: +49 89 60 72 97 65
Francisco Lechon
Media Relations Spain
Astrium Spain
Tel.: +34 91 5 86 37 41
Fax: +34 91 5 86 37 82
Jeremy Close
Media Relations UK
Astrium United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 1 438 77 3872
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